US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice is exceedingly pleased that owing to intense American lobbying, Iran will not be taking a seat on the board of the UN's new agency for women. Somehow we didn't manage to keep Saudi Arabia and Congo off the board, however. The board is comprised of ten members, so they'll be 20 percent of it.
Congo, you may recall, is famous for village agriculture, handicrafts, and rape. Saudi Arabia is famous for spending a great deal of money to keep anyone from loudly pointing out that women in Saudi Arabia don't have the right to drive or to expose their faces to sunlight.
Apparently, true to form, the Saudis just outright bought their seat:
Philippe Bolopion of Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed relief that Iran was denied a seat on the board of UN Women. ... The Saudis had essentially been allowed to “buy their way” onto the board with a generous contribution, Bolopion added.
UN Women will have double the current combined budget of all the other existing UN Agencies with a brief for "gender equality" and "women's empowerment." Those would be DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM, which are not precisely underfunded.
If I were the worrying kind, I might wonder if this new agency really has what it takes to empower women. But I'm not the fretful sort, so I say let's not be churlish about such minor technical quibbles as Congo's dubious authority on matters of women's rights:
And so as the sun dropped behind the soaring jungle here one recent day, little girls, mothers and grandmothers began heading home, some closing curtains and padlocking wooden doors. It was time, they explained, to lock themselves indoors.
"To avoid getting raped, after 6 p.m., women are not allowed to go out of the house," said Maria Bitondo, who said she was among three women attacked by a soldier last month. "With the soldiers here, no woman is safe to go out and walk. We do not even go to the bathroom at night."
This new "structure for the empowerment of women"--apparently the product of years of negotiation--has the wisdom and experience of Pakistan to draw upon. There's another member of the board with massive authority when it comes to the empowerment of women. So I'm sure it will be a smashing success and an excellent investment.
At least a lot of that is probably mostly Saudi money, not ours. I guess it's better that they waste it on this than on buying themselves a few thousand more terrorist-incubating madrassas in Pakistan.
Always look on the bright side, I say. My model in this attitude is Susan Rice, who really shines a light upon this benighted world with her power of positive thinking.
- Comment (5)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Saudis and Congolese to Sit on UN's New Women's Rights Board; US Claims Diplomatic Triumph
Why not merge the new agency with the UNHRC, to form a superagency? It could be called UNFIT, as in United Nations Feminist and Islamist Team.Given recent events in Israel concerning Rachel's Tomb, there may even be a place for UNESCO, in which case "Triad" could be substituted for "team", which definitely would sound better.
May '10
Re: Saudis and Congolese to Sit on UN's New Women's Rights Board; US Claims Diplomatic Triumph
Add this to the anti-global-warming measure F.A.R.T (Flatulent Animal Reduction Treaty) and we just might save the world.
Oct '10
Re: Saudis and Congolese to Sit on UN's New Women's Rights Board; US Claims Diplomatic Triumph
Surely the home-page of the NOW website should be ablaze with indignation! Take a look at http://www.now.org Not a word. The only mentions of international women's issues are in lower right hand corner under "Take Action."
"Help Eradicate Female Genital Mutilation." The only countries called out by name are Canada and the USA. Is that cowardice, stupidity, or allegiance to an agenda that has nothing to do with women's rights? All three, probably.
Aug '10
Re: Saudis and Congolese to Sit on UN's New Women's Rights Board; US Claims Diplomatic Triumph
More evidence of the plague of our age: Delusional Cognitive Disconnect. The unbridgeable chasm. Matter and anti-matter.
May '10
Re: Saudis and Congolese to Sit on UN's New Women's Rights Board; US Claims Diplomatic Triumph
More evidence that it's long, long past time for our approach to the UN to shift to "We'll bring the guns. You guys can pay for... whatever the Hell it is you're doing."